TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Taiwan's newly appointed Minister of Digital Affairs, Yi-Jing Lin (林宜敬), unveiled his comprehensive strategic vision for the island's digital transformation Wednesday (Sept. 3), prioritizing artificial intelligence industry development, cybersecurity resilience, and fraud prevention. Lin announced ambitious plans to advance digital government initiatives, including the implementation of digital certificate wallets to enhance Taiwan's technological infrastructure. The minister's roadmap signals Taiwan's determination to strengthen its position in the global digital economy amid increasing technological competition.
Lin outlined his ambitious strategy during a media tea party, explaining his aim to build Taiwan's AI industry ecosystem on the foundation established by his predecessor, Yennun Huang (黃彥男). The minister intends to implement five key policy tools: computing power, data, talent, marketing, and funding to accelerate technological development. The Ministry of Digital Affairs will offer free GPU computing power to Taiwanese AI startups to help them validate business ideas and establish a sovereign AI training dataset specifically for Taiwan's unique needs.
Lin announced comprehensive plans to address critical talent shortages by establishing AI talent recognition guidelines and developing a robust training ecosystem to meet surging industry demand. The ministry will organize strategic industry matchmaking events targeting key sectors including healthcare, long-term care, and manufacturing to foster collaboration and innovation. The government will allocate NT$10 billion (around US$326 million) from the National Development Council (國發會), Taiwan's economic planning agency, to invest in the most promising technology companies.
Lin emphasized crucial collaboration with Taiwan's private cybersecurity sector to strengthen the resilience of government departments' critical infrastructure and vital industry supply chains against cyber threats. He stated that he will collaborate with major tech giants like Google, Meta, and LINE to engage them actively in the fight against fraud, leveraging sophisticated automated tools to prevent digital scams. The ministry has already passed specialized anti-fraud legislation and established a comprehensive online fraud reporting and inquiry network for public protection.